ROCK HILL, SC—Looking to build on a solid opening weekend, the Winthrop softball team heads to Auburn, AL for the Tiger Invitational that begins on Friday, Feb. 13 with the Eagles taking on Eastern Illinois and Georgia State.
Winthrop started the season 3-0 for the first time since 2004 and finished the opening weekend at 3-2 as its dropped two straight.
Due to the possibility of near freezing temperatures in the area over the weekend, the schedule has been adjusted as the Eagles will now open with Eastern Illinois on Friday at 10:45 a.m. and then Georgia State at 1:15 p.m. This will be the third meeting all time with the Panthers and the 17
th meeting all-time against Georgia State. On Saturday the Eagles will face Ball State at 1:15 in the 5
th meeting all-time. Winthrop wraps-up play on Sunday with a 1:15 p.m. against Mercer and then at 3:45 p.m. against 17
th-ranked Auburn, which will be just the third meeting all-time. All game times are Eastern Standard Time.
It was an interesting opening weekend for the Eagles as they opened up with a 5-1 victory over Illinois on Feb. 6 and as the weekend went on several players started to get ill which forced
Mark Cooke to test the depth of his roster.
Winthrop played all 20 players that were available as the only player that didn't see time was recovering from an injury. Of the 20 players that saw action, 14 of them got at least one hit and 16 of them scored at least one run.
Sophomore shortstop
Maddie Antone got off to a good start as she homered in her first at-bat of the season and the final at-bat of the weekend. Antone leads the team and the Big South in runs scored with eight and is batting .471. She hit a two-run home run against Illinois in the opener which were all the runs Winthrop needed in a 5-1 victory and then broke up a no-hit bid in the 10-2 loss to #10/12 Georgia in the fourth inning.
Leading the team with a .471 batting average is senior pitcher
Sara Allen, who provided a big 3-run homerun in the 8-6 win over Murray State. Sophomore
Haley Zuehlke, who only started two games due to illness, is also batting .571 and has three runs, four hits and two RBI. Antone, who is riding a five-game hitting streak, also leads the team in RBI with five while Allen and senior
Kelsey Ritter have four. Ritter missed action on Sunday due to illness but in the first three games she batted .364 with four runs and four RBI.
During the first weekend the Eagles were outscored 24-22 in the first four innings while outscoring their opponents 16-6 in the final three innings.
Allen opened the season with a complete game victory over Illinois but finished the weekend with a 9.26 ERA after the loss to the Bulldogs. The pitching staff is behind the offense (numbers wise) to start the season and the veteran staff will look to get back on track this weekend.
Eastern Illinois started the weekend 2-3 as it opened up at 19
th-ranked LSU with a 6-1 loss and then headed to Lafayette, LA for the Louisiana-Lafayette Classic as it faced off against the host (ranked 9
th) first and suffered a 17-0 loss. The Panthers bounced back to take two straight against Incarnate Word before falling in the final game to the Ragin' Cajuns in the final game. All three losses are against Top 20 teams.
The Panthers lost six starters from a team that was 38-17 in 2014. The top two returning batters from 2014 return and three of the top five but the Panthers lost both starters in the circle that combined for 248.1 innings pitched. Hannah Cole was the top batter in 2014 and is batting .308 so far while Bailey O'Dell is also a returner as she's hitting .462.
It will be the first action of 2015 for Georgia State as it is coming off a 30-26 season that included a win late in the season over #13 Georgia. The Panthers hit a team-record 59 home runs last season and return 55 of those dingers as they are picked to finish third in the Sun Belt Conference. The five top batters from 2014 return led by Taylor Anderson who hit .343 with eight doubles, 14 home runs and had 43 RBI. Lauren Coleman led the team in batting average (.389) and RBI (47) as she also had nine home runs. The team's top pitcher is gone as the staff is headlined by Eron Milton, who was 7-7 with a 4.95 ERA in 94.2 innings in 2014.
Ball State went 3-1 on opening weekend with wins over South Dakota, IUPUI and Lipscomb at the Belmont/Lipscomb Music City Classic. The only loss came by one run to Indiana State. In 2014 the Cardinals were 33-19 and pounded out 60 home runs. The Cardinals have already hit four home runs and are led by Hanne Stuedemann, who is batting .462 with six runs and two RBI. Sammi Cowger leads the team with two homers as she also has two runs and a team-high eight RBI. Emily Dabkowski is second on the team with seven RBI and is batting .357. The pitching staff for Ball State was solid and held opponents to a .195 average. In four games they pounded out 10 runs in the seven inning and eight in the sixth.
The Bears opened up the season at home by hosting the Mercer Invitational and is off to a 4-1 start after a win over IPFW, two over Valparaiso and one over Jacksonville State. Mercer is led by Natalie Shiver, who was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week after going 7-for-13 with six runs, two home runs and seven RBI. Riley Carter also belted two homeruns as she finished the weekend with seven RBI as well. In the circle the Eagles could face either Kirsten Stevens (2-0, 4.50 ERA, 14.0 IP) or Anna O'Neill (1-1, 6.30 ERA, 6.2 IP).
Auburn opened the season 6-0 as it did not score fewer than eight runs in all six games, outscoring its opponents 67-8 behind nine home runs and 12 doubles. Haley Fagan leads the team with 12 RBI as she also has nine runs, and three home runs while batting .538. Emily Carosone leads the team with a .643 average and has 10 runs, two doubles, two home runs and is second on the team with 11 RBI. A total of five batters are hitting over .500 and as a team Auburn hit .437 in its first six games. In the circle, Lexi Davis is 3-0 while Marcy Harper is 2-0. Davis made three starts and has a 2.80 ERA with 11 strikeouts to two walks. Harper made two starts (three appearances) and has a 1.45 ERA with nine strikeouts and no walks.
